A GEEK DADDY: Sharing a dad's adventures in parenting plus enjoying the geeky side of life

Friday, January 11, 2013

Book Review: GOODNIGHT BASEBALL

I’ve been a Detroit Tigers fan since I was a little kid with
an attachment to the team and the game of baseball developed through the connection to
time I spent with my grandfather and father enjoying the national pastime. Some of my fondest memories of time spent
with my grandpa involved sitting on his back porch with him drinking out of glass
bottles a multitude of different Towne Club soda pop flavors …I think there were 24 flavors
in all that my grandparents bought in big wooden grates…while listening to the Tigers’ games on the radio. And what young boy doesn’t cherish the ball
games their Dad takes them to. I have
such great memories of eating hot dogs with my Dad at the old Tiger Stadium on
Woodward & Trumbull while watching Sweet Lou Whitaker and Alan Trammell
turn double plays.

As a parent now myself, I’ve shared my love of the game with
my children as a bonding experience with them.
We’ve enjoyed some cherished family moments enjoying games together at
the Tiger’s new home Comerica Park and watching on television as a new
generation of heroes named Cabrera, Ordonez, Fielder, Avila & Verlander
take the field and lead the team to division championships and the playoffs. I believe that \ my children like the
excitement associated with the sport but what they really enjoy is the quality time
with me that watching these games together represents. Enjoying baseball is an important pastime for
our family.

With all these baseball memories in mind, I recently discovered
a book that ties into our family’s enjoyment of the game published by CAPSTONE YOUNG READERS in partnership with SPORTS ILLUSTRATED KIDS called “Goodnight
Baseball”. I’ve been reading the book
to my 4 year old twins this week at bed time, literally all week because they’ve
asked me to reread it to them every night, and the kids love it. I enjoy reading it to them because it is a
nice nostalgic tale that our family can relate to about a father taking a son
to his first baseball game.

The story written by Michael Dahl explores the sights and
sounds of baseball through a fun rhyme that makes the book an easy and fun
bedtime read for a parent. Also because
of the rhyme type storytelling there isn’t a lot of text which allows you to
really enjoy and focus on the great illustrations in the book by ChristinaForshay. “Good Night Baseball” does a really
nice job of portraying the excitement through a kid’s perspective of
experiencing his or her first trip to a Major League ballpark through Dahl’s rhymes
and Forshay’s sketches. Reader’s
experience the sights and sounds of a trip to the ballpark starting from pulling
into the stadium parking lot and wrapping up with a Daddy carrying his tucked
out son up to bed when they get home.

I appreciated that Christina Forshay’s illustrations had a
classic 1960s/1970s feel to them that reminded me of the animation style of
cartoons like “Woody Wood Pecker” & “Tom & Jerry” and Disney movies
such as “Alice in Wonderland” and “the Fox & the Hound” that I enjoyed when
I was a little kid. Forshay’s drawings
drew my kids’ attention into the book artwork rather than me just reading the
words to them and allowed aspects of the story to pop out of the pages at them. Three of my children and mine’s favorite
images were a display of the ball diamond that made it seem as if you were
sitting in the outfield taking the whole field in; a picture of the daddy
taking a photo of his son with a lifelike team mascot; and the last page of the
book that shows the son falling asleep in his room holding a stuffed toy of the
mascot as the moon is displayed in the child’s window looking as if it is a
baseball. Forshay does an exceptional job
portraying the story through the eyes of a child.

Something I thought was funny that caught my attention while
reading the book was how Michael Dahl has the young boy say “goodbye” to all
the different things at the ballpark as they are leaving the stadium. He says goodbye to the players, their equipment,
the field, the seats, and the trash of the ground as they are leaving. My son does exactly that when we go out
places – saying goodbye to all sorts of people, animals and objects when we are
out and about. For example we were at
the grocery store the other day and as we headed to the car he said good bye to
the cashier, than the shopping cart, and the food we didn’t buy, and finally to
the building as we pulled out of the parking lot – so Dahl’s inclusion of that
angle into his story really hit home. I
also appreciated how the author included things that would excite children
about going to a stadium such as showing your tickets at the gate, buying
snacks, meeting a team mascot, getting a chance to walk the bases and see a
dugout, catching a foul ball. Including
the “goodnight” angle too really makes this a great bedtime story because it
keeps the kids attention and entertains them but it closes out getting them ready
to go to bed themselves – excellent!

The downside for us was that we read “Goodnight Baseball” as
an e-book on my iPad. I really don’t
like reading bedtime stories from my tablet to the kids because they have a
tendency for me to want to play apps with them instead and it just doesn’t seem
as nice to read to them from as a printed book.
Some of the pages weren’t as aligned on the screen and had to toggle the
screen somewhat to see the whole picture.
I have a feeling that the book’s images would display better and look a
little nicer in print versus digital.
That being said we did find the e-book overall to be a very enjoyable
read that my children repeatedly went out of their way to ask me to share with
them again at bedtime after I read it to them the first time.

“Goodnight Baseball” hits store retail shelves in March as a
hardcover book for $14.95 and is aimed for children ages 4 – 7. If you are looking for a good bedtime reading
book to share with your children the Geek Daddy highly recommends you check it
out!

Disclaimer: I
received a free advance copy digital e-book of “Goodnight Baseball” from the
publisher to review. The thoughts and
opinions in the review are my own.